SugarHigh
by Paradoxa
Summary: A Sniffles x Nutty yaoi love story filled with lies, deceit, hope, painful realization, and death.
1. Chapter I  Oblivious Love

Author's Note: This story uses the human appearances of used characters, the animal personification is purely used to describe behavior.

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**Sugar-High**

**Chapter I – Oblivious Love**

Another average day in a not so average town. The lovable green, hyper-active squirrel of the town sat with his legs crisscrossed as his behind nuzzled into the grassy plain under the tree he used for cover from the heating UV waves of the sun. He sighed happily as he put his arms behind his head, his neon pink stripped shirt lifted up a bit, shifting the yellow candy chain he wore diagonally across his chest, revealing a nice smooth stomach with a belly button decorating the center of his abdomen. He also wore a neon green hoodie that had neon pink cuffs at the end of the sleeves, on this jacket were two bow tie pins on the right side with a winking pin and a candy cane hanging out of the front right hand side pocket and two safety pins, one of red and the other of white, hanging off the bottom left hand article of his jacket.. Just below his belly button was the hem of black shorts with a brown belt running all around the fabric, holding the hem snug to his skin. The baggy black and neon pink edged shorts draped down to his knees, with pockets filled with so much candy that it had begun to stick out from the openings that led into the void of his pockets, and where neon green and green-yellow stripped socks began to run down the length of his legs to the brown boots he wore. His laces were undone, but as if he cared about that at all, he liked them that way. His hair was also a mess, pure green locks draped down his head gracefully, the back of his hair reaching down to his collar bone where a red-orange candy chain dangled. A single area of his bangs were coloured a yellow-green in the middle, on this area of hair he wore two horizontal candy hair pins with a large, bitten into, round red lollipop that was stuck just above the two hair pins. On his left ear resided three piercings, two dot earrings and a small ring earring on the lobe, above that ear were two orange and yellow polka dotted drops of candy that hid in his hair.

His eyes were closed as he inhaled the sweet scent of Autumn air, his nostrils expanding to take in the sweet air. His lips were curled up in a small smile as he enjoyed his relaxation against his favorite tree, this was perfect. The male's left arm shifted from behind his head to inside his pocket, grabbing a handful of whatever candy fell victim to his iron grip. Lifting his handful of candy out from his pocket, his eyes opened to sample what delicacies he would enjoy. One eye looked completely normal, green and innocent looking, the other was googly, lazy and a brighter green then the other. His googly, lazy eye looked almost smaller compared to the pupil and iris to his normal looking eye.

"Hmmm..." he hummed gently as he examined the bunch he had in his warm hand almost confusing the checkered red and white ring he wore on his right hand with the bunch of candy he held.

Pieces of colourful candy poured onto the groin area of the male's lap as he sat up a bit and rubbed his hands together with a small giggle and the quick smacking of his lips, which he was very known for. Hands quickly began to unwrap various pieces of candy, dark purple and black stripped coloured nails ripping into wrappers and tearing them apart to retrieve the sweet jewels they held within their colourful packaging. His mouth was open and in went ever little piece, jaws closed, teeth breaking into the hard surfaces of the candies, shattering them into delicate pieces as their sweet taste invaded and conquered the hyper-active squirrel's tongue and mouth, almost devouring his sky blue and white candy bracelet that dangled off his right hand wrist. Rapid lip smacking, tongue licking around his sticky fingers, laughter ensued and eventually, the famous sugar-high that sent the male jumping up and laughing hard as he held his stomach. For several minutes he laughed and ran about, climbing up his tree then jumping down and rolling around the grass.

As soon as he began calming down from his sugar-high, his eyes glanced over toward the town that was in the distance as he laid on his stomach. He wondered if any of his buddies were busy at the moment, maybe he could take them to get some sweets. He hopped up and blinked a bit before he began to run off toward the town giggling to himself as he had his arms spread out like a airplane.

In the small cafe diner the town had, just about everyone was there enjoying their breakfasts of all different kinds. Disco Bear was of course trying to make a move on the two lovely ladies of Petunia and Giggles whom both rejected him for how incredibly lame he was. Pop and Cub were sitting together, eating and playing little games with their food like a happy pair. Lumpy was attempting to buy something to eat and tried to explain to Petunia that he had no money on him, which of course caused him to get denied service before Flippy came over and offered to pay for his food. Russell was enjoying a hardy seaman's breakfast of fish and other assorted sea foods. Mime was seemingly eating whatever the hell he had conjured up on the empty table in front of him. Mole kept tripping and falling all over the place, making a very frustrated Sniffles gather his things and head out the door, inevitably making him smash into a running Nutty who happened to come running by.

Grunting, the two men fell to the floor with thuds, each of them rubbing their tender bottoms from the impact of the concrete floor beneath them. The blue haired male shook his head and moved his short wavy hair out from in front of his eyes as he adjusted his glasses before he looked over at the green haired male.

"Ahh..Nutty..I'm sorry, I didn't see you running over here, how clumsy of me." he apologized, standing up and dusting off himself off, fixing his red tie that was mostly covered by the odd blue coloured sweater vest he wore over his white polo which happened to be accompanied by a pair of gray shorts, black knee high socks and brown dress type shoes. He extended a hand, bright blue eyes staring at the other male whom was still on the ground, looking up at him. The blue haired male smiled gently before Nutty extended his own hand and grasped his with that of his own. Laughing a little, Sniffles pulled up the brightly dressed man.

"Ehehe~ Sniffles, you should really watch around you, y'know you're almost as blind as Mole!" he laughed a little.

"W-What? B-Blind like Mole? Why that's absolutely preposterous!" Sniffles argued.

Nutty stood there with a clueless look upon his face, his mouth slightly opened as he stared at him like a complete moron, "You don't even know what that means...do you?" Sniffles spoke with a slight sigh after his sentence.

Nutty nodded his head to answer Sniffles question which only made the blue haired male shake his head and kneel down to the ground to pick up the books he had with him before they were dropped once running into Nutty the way he had.

"So..Nutty, what brings you to town? As if I don't know all ready.." he muttered.

"Hmmm~ I was wondering if anyone wanted to go get some sweets with me down by the ice cream parlor that Lifty an Shifty got going by the antiques shop! Say..-"

"Ah! Don't even think about asking me Nutty, I have a million things to attend to back home and I got a lot of experiments to run in a very small time frame." Sniffles interrupted.

The other male looked down a bit and pouted, "Oh... All right.. Well I guess we'll hang out another time?"

"Yeah.. I guess so." he shrugged before he walked past Nutty, heading off toward his home before stopping dead in his tracks.

_'Dammit Sniffles, don't give into your tender heart, you have a lot of important work to do, you can't afford to mess around. Don't do it! Don't do it!' _he repeated to himself in his mind until he turned around to see Nutty hadn't moved an inch, like he knew that he would come back to him and take up the offer.

Sighing, he walked back over to Nutty and stood next to him, putting a single hand on his shoulder, "Hey..Let's go down to the parlor and get one ice cream.. I can sacrifice some time and hang for a little while." he said with a s slight smile.

His head rose up as his eyes seemed to shine with brilliance and happiness as he looked up at the other with a big smile on his face before he would grab a hold of him, wrapping his arms around the properly dressed man tightly and squeezing somewhat, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" he exclaimed happily.

Grunting and squirming around in the squirrel's grasp, Sniffles chuckled nervously and attempted to push him off, wheezing slightly from the cut of air circulation in his lungs. Nutty got the hint and let go almost immediately before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little dum dum lollipop, unwrapping it and sticking it into his mouth as he smiled at the other and started leading the way toward the ice cream parlor he had talked about and wanted to go to so badly. Reluctantly, Sniffles followed willingly against his better judgment. As if anyone in their right mind would willingly hang out with this sugar crazy bastard of a being. The two walked one behind the other for a while until they were side by side and began mindless conversation about their days so far, even though they had just started them. They passed by many shops of all kinds, hair salons, grocery stores, a gas station, some fast food joints, and occasionally they passed by a small club or two. Sooner or later, they ended up in the front door of the ice cream parlor Nutty was so dying to get into. Just looking into the window of the shop made his mouth water with excitement, he loved ice cream almost as much as he loved candy itself. The interior of the shop looked like your average ice cream parlor, small with a few tables of solid colours of red, white and some other kind of tacky colours with large storage freezers with all kinds of ice cream running along the front counter of the register. Sniffles looked through the window with the crazed sugar lover and blinked, amazed to see how many different kinds of ice cream they had at their disposal. Glancing over to his side for a moment, there was a change; Nutty wasn't next to the book holding male's side. Blinking he turned back to the window, seeing the hyper-active male was already inside, eager to try some of the delicious nectar that would be his next meal.

Shaking his head with a slight laugh, he stepped to the front door, pushing it open making a small bell ring to signal another customer had entered the shop. Nutty and Sniffles were the only ones there besides the shop owners of the kleptomaniac raccoon twins, Shifty and Lifty, whom stood behind the counter wearing black suits and aprons over them, with their typical smiles on their faces as they welcomed the two in. Typical Nutty was already pointing out all the different kinds of ice cream flavors he wanted to have in his ice cream cone. Lifty was in charge of the scooping, taking out a ice cream scooper he tried to keep up with the rapidly deciding squirrel, attempting to scoop out all the flavors he wanted and playing them in the largest cone size so it would actually fit. Sniffles and Shifty could only laugh as they watched with amusement before Nutty's order was finished and handed to him. Sniffles smiled and pointed toward the Rocky Road ice cream and Lifty was thankful that it would be a normal cone and not Nutty's monstrosity. Sniffle's gladly paid for the two orders making the twins grin and laugh from the money they got.

Nutty had already ran off and sat down in one of the booth seats against the window, happily licking his tall tower of 23 different ice cream flavors. Smiling lightly, his companion joined him, setting his books down on the table between them as he sat across from him, gently licking the soft creamy surface of his Rocky Road ice cream.

"Oooo~ Heheheh..Hey Sniffles." Nutty giggled, chomping into his ice cream.

"Hm?" he hummed in reply, his tongue sticking out and touching the ice cream.

"Thanks for doing this. You didn't have to, but it makes me happy to know that not everyone finds me completely annoying." Nutty responded.

Sniffles smiled softly, taking another lick of his ice cream. Inside Sniffles felt bad for the other male. Everyone around town did find him odd, annoying, and an outcast. Everyone in the tow would pretend to like him, pretend to act like a friend to him. Everyone was guilty of this crime, including Sniffles himself. He felt regret for ever pretending and faking his friendship with Nutty. He didn't dwell on the thought for long so he could keep his smile up and make sure Nutty didn't see any sign of sadness because he would ask what was wrong. And if he was to find out the truth, who knows what would happen?

The two males had idle chit chat about they're favorite kinds of ice creams and as to why they loved them so much. Nutty finished before Sniffles ever did, which to say the very least was surprising. But then again, it was Nutty after all, the devourer of sweets galore. As soon as Sniffles finished his cone, he wiped his mouth with a small napkin while Nutty was busy licking his fingers and lips to get every single sweet taste of any remnant of the sticky substance he enjoyed. Sniffles chuckled lightly before he shifted out of his seat, standing up and collecting his things.

"Well, Nutty, I wish I could stay longer but I really have to get going." he said, breaking the silence.

Nutty frowned and looked up at him sadly, "Aww! All ready?" he whined.

Sniffles only nodded his head in reply and head toward the shop door before stopping with his hand on the door itself, ready to push, "Sorry Nutty." he muttered before he pushed the door open and walked out, heading down the road to where his home would be.

Frowning and pouting, his resting his elbows on the table with his chin resting on his palms. Shifty and Lifty both looked at each other and began to snicker slightly with devious grins on their faces. The two twins slicked out from behind the counter and headed toward pouty male. The two of them stood next to where he was sitting, one arm other their shoulders and a hand on the opposite hip.

"So, Nutty. Ya feeling kinda lonely?" Shifty asked, grinning.

They only got a slight nod from the disappointed green-haired male.

"You know he's just fooling ya, right?" Lifty said.

This made Nutty turn his head with a questionable look on his face, "Fooling me? What do you mean, fooling me?"

"He's just acting nice so you don't feel bad, he's not really your friend." Shifty explained.

"Yeah, he's not! But you know what'll make your sorrows go away? Another helping of ice cream. You don't have to pay for now, you can just repay us tomorrow when you get the money. Whaddaya say?" Lifty proposed.

Nutty was shocked from the news, could it really be true that Sniffles was just deceiving him? It was true to a certain degree, the time the two spent together today was completely genuine, but how could Nutty know this after the news was just broken to him. Shifty sat down across from him, grinning a little as Lifty went back behind the counter to prepare Nutty another delicious serving.

"Ah, don't look so down buddy. If Sniffles wants to lie and pretend to be your friend, we can be your real friends." he grinned, trying to gain the distressed male's trust. It seemed Shifty and Lifty had a devious money scheme planned out for him.

"Y-You really mean it? You'll be my friends?" he asked, a pathetic look on his face, a look of depression and sadness.

"Sure! If no one else will be your friends, then we'll be your friends buddy." Lifty called over to him, heading toward him with another giant cone of delectable ice cream.

Extending the ice cream forth toward the rather depressed male. A slight smile formed on his frowny lips as he looked over at Lifty and took the ice cream from his hand, licking against the smooth texture of the delicious frozen treat. Shifty adjusted his hat, his dark green locks draping over one of his eyes while Lifty looked at him and winked a bit as a sort of non-verbal communication between the two. Shifty nodded his head and looked out the window to see that Sniffles was standing on the opposite side of the road from across the shop.

"Ahh.. so Nutty..! Why don't you come on over here and away from the window? You don't want that ice cream to melt now, do ya?" Shifty said, scooting out of his seat and standing to avert Nutty's gaze from looking beyond the window. It worked, the sugar loving male's eyes followed their movements as they smiled at him while he licked at his ice cream. Though their distraction plan was short lived since Sniffle's had entered the shop once more, making the shop bell ring above the door which inevitably made Nutty look over and blinked his eyes.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the 'friend.'" Lifty said putting up air quotes as he said friend.

"Ohh, it's the 'friend.' Here to lie to your 'buddy' some more?" Shifty said chuckling a little.

"W-What are you two talking about? I haven't lied to Nutty about anything! If anything, you two have been lying to him about whatever it is you probably tossed into his mind." Sniffles said defensively, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Tch, us lie? How could you accuse us of lying? We're very honest people!" Shifty acted out against him.

"We would never lie to Nutty! He's our legit friend whom we cherish and don't pretend to be nice to." Lifty added on with his brother's argument.

"Just what on earth are you talking about?" Sniffles exclaimed, demanding to know.

Nutty squeaked a little and added his say in, "They told me that you were just pretending to be my friend so I wouldn't be sad or feel bad.." he pouted.

"W-What? That's just utter nonsense! I would never do that to you. You're my friend, Nutty." Sniffles replied to Nutty.

Hearing that made the pure green-haired male smile a little. The twins looked at each other with annoyed faces before they returned their attention back toward the two other males. Overly happy, Nutty accidentally dropped his ice cream onto the parlor floor as he got up from his seat finally and proceeded to tightly hug and squeeze the blue-haired male. Shifty and Lifty hopped out of the way as the ice cream fell to the floor, wearing annoyed and pissed expressions upon their faces as they knew their plan to scam Nutty out of money was inevitably foiled by this event. Lifty was more so pissed then Shifty since he would have to clean up the damn mess on the floor. Sniffles grunted but allowed the other to hug and squeeze all he want, a single hand reaching up and patting him on the top of his head.

"C'mon Sniffles! I know a great place we can hang out in!" Nutty exclaimed.

"Yeah, let's go. Better off together then with these two rats." Sniffles said smiling with insulting intent behind his words.

The twins growled and turned around, walking back toward the counter, bickering at each other about who's fault it was that their plan failed. Nutty was overwhelmed with joy and had such a short attention span that he hadn't even noticed Lifty and Shifty were still about. To him all that was there was him and his best friend Sniffles. The two men left the klepto twins in their shop, both of them now standing on the sidewalk in front of the parlor itself after sounding the shop bell once they opened the door to leave. Sniffle's hand dug themselves into the pockets of his shorts after he adjusted his glasses, smiling at Nutty who had latched himself onto his right arm, not wanting to let it go.

The two men strolled down the sidewalk, heading toward the local community park. Both of them were quiet, enjoying each others company. Sniffles could get used to this, he was starting to see a whole new side of Nutty that no one has gotten a chance to see since they all just ignored him and shrugged him off as a public annoyance. Nutty and Sniffles made it to the public park and took a seat on one of the many benches that dotted around the park. Pop and Cub were of course there like usual, playing games and bonding like a real father and son would. Cuddles was sitting in one of the swings humming to himself and looking up at the clouds, swaying a bit. Nutty and Sniffles laughed and joked a bit, making fun of Flippy and Lumpy arguing with each other over god knows what.

"You know... I didn't think hanging out with a friend could be so enjoyable in such a simple place." Sniffles said, looking at Nutty.

"Huh? You really think this is enjoyable?" Nutty asked curiously.

"Mm-hmm, I can't really explain it, but it's nice to spend some time with someone rather then being alone." he replied, "Hey, if you'd like, we could hang out a little more tomorrow if you have nothing else to do." he added.

"B-But, what about all that smart stuff you had to do? Won't you be working on all that all day?" he blinked, tilting his head some.

"Ah, it can wait a day I think." Sniffles answered with a small chuckle.

Nutty smiled wide, his eyes shimmering with happiness.

Finally he had found a real, true friend to call his own. Finally he had found someone that he could spend time with, someone that he could talk to, someone he could connect to. This, marked the happiest day of his life.


	2. Chapter II  False Hope

**Chapter II – False Hope**

The night of the first day happened to undergo dramatic change. From a bright and sunny wonderland to the cold, chilling darkness. It was near the Christmas season, so the cold nights were to be expected among the denizens of the small town. Many of the townsfolk had already retired for the night and gone to bed, enjoying deep slumber with dreams filled with aspiration of what they would do at sometime in the near future. Though there were a few of the late night birds, up and about, running small errands around their respectful homes, except for two shady characters.

A dark green hat peeked out from behind a bush, amber eyes staring out, almost glowing in the night. Another pair of amber eyes stared out from the same bush, looking around before the two pair of eyes looked at each other with a snicker. Popping out from behind the bushes, wearing dark green trench coats with black suits under there and wearing dark green eye masks, were Lifty and Shifty, smirking and looking at the mail box near the bush reading the name of who it belonged to. The two of them looked at each other and chuckled lightly, Shifty fixed his hat and looked around the streets and sidewalks to see if anyone was walking by on a night stroll while Lifty searched the small home for a possible break in point.

Lifty struck a break in point around the back of the home and signaled for Shifty to get the gear and head over to him by cupping his hands over his mouth and making a small opening so when he whistled it would travel back toward his twin. Hearing the whistle, Shifty retreated back into the bush they had been hiding in, coming back out with a large black sack hurled over his shoulder as he sneaked his way around the back toward his brother before he would set the sack down and opening it up. Reaching in Shifty pulled out two pairs of black gloves, handing one pair to his brother and then slipping the other pair onto his own hands, the same way his brother would, left hand first. After they both got their gloves on, Shifty looked up at his brother and blinked.

"So, how are we going to do this Lifty?" he asked.

"Well.. this door looks pretty damn old. Maybe it's one of those doors that you can put something thin into the crack and unlock it. But you know what? We'll just break this damn door down anyway. Let's use the crowbar to open this shit up." Lifty responded, his arms crossed as he examined the white door.

Nodding his head, the fedora wearing twin reaching into the sack, rummaging his hand around until he felt his fingers tap against the long slender bar of metal. He gripped it and pulled out the black bar of iron and handed it over to his brother whom took it with a small thanks and placed it between the door and the door frame. He angled it and with one swift pull of the crow bar, the door snapped open with a loud cracking of wood.

"We're in." Lifty grinned and held the crowbar firmly before moving in, "Leave the sack there, we'll get it and then run out of here after the jobs done. And refrain from stealing anything! I know it'll be tough for the both of us, but we're here for something else. Got it?" he lectured.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut up and let's get this done with, I want to fucking sleep already. It's what..? Two in the morning?" Shifty responded.

The two would of started bickering senselessly if Lifty had stayed motionless and listened to his brother, but the hatless male had already walked into the house, leaving Shifty by himself before he too followed behind. Shifty grumbled to himself before he caught up with Lifty and smacked him over the head. Lifty growled and chose to ignore his brother's action since they had a greater task to deal with right now.

"All right, seems like he's sleeping. Shifty, have any ideas where the hell he would be sleeping?" Lifty whispered.

"Hell if I know, your guess is as good as mine is." Shifty responded quietly.

The two looked at each other in thought before they heard snoring. How simple this was turning out to be for the twins, or was it just luck that they happened to stumble upon a victim who had snoring issues? Either way, the two sneaked through the rather simple looking house toward the source of the snoring which lead them into a small bedroom where the lumps in the bed covers showed someone was indeed sleeping there. Smirking, Lifty went to the side the body was mostly leaning to, checking up on their sleeping victim. He looked over toward Shifty and nodded his head, the fedora wearing male tip-toeing over to his brother and pulling down the covers slightly to uncover the head of their victim.

"On three, ready?" Lifty whispered.

His twin nodded his head and put his hands into position to hold the person's head still and cover their mouth at the same time, his hands hovered over the areas and await his brother's order to act. The moonlight coming in from the window was enough for the nocturnal twins to see what they were doing. Lifty raised his crowbar high and held it as if he was going to stab, both hands holding onto the bar of iron tightly.

"One... Two... Three!" he whispered.

On the mark of three, Shifty forcefully gripped the areas his hands were hovering over, inevitable waking up the person who was sleeping soundly, whom only had a few seconds to look around before the crowbar hit flesh and penetrated their head through the temple which cause one of their eyes to pop out from the socket, dangling over the side of the bed by a bloody optic nerve. The sound of the person gurgling was disturbing since they were gurgling on their own blood. They died quickly, the crowbar had went straight into the brain, but only made it half way through their entire head. The body had lashed around for a moment before it fell limp and lifeless. Lifty pulled out his crowbar, the sound of flesh ripping and popping out with the metal bar made him a bit sick. Shifty let go of now dead persons head and stepped back from the body.

"H-Holy shit... W-We actually did it!"Shifty exclaimed, slightly shocked and surprised.

"Y-Yeah we did.." the other twin began to say before he shook his head, "C'mon, we need to make this look legit and cover the tracks." Lifty added.

Shifty nodded his head and dashed out of the room, through the house to the back door the two had originally broken in through. He quickly grabbed the sack and lugged it over his shoulder and returned to his brother in a matter of moments. Dropping the sack he reached in a grabbed a hold of two small black boxes, taking them out and handing one of them to his brother.

"All right.. You know what to do, Lifty. I'll take care of the kitchen and back door." Shifty said, taking his box and and taking off to the back.

The two of them must have been at work for hours since the sun was just creeping alone the horizon as the two of them emerged from the back door of the house, gather their things and leaving a few things behind. Why were they doing that after a murder? Who knows, but the two fled the scene and headed back toward their hideout.

All was normal after a couple of hours and it was now around 11 AM. Nutty was walking up Sniffles's driveway and onto the front walk toward his house door. He knocked on his door, rocking on his heels back and forth with a small lollipop in his mouth, hands behind his back as he was wearing the same outfit he had on the other day. He waited for a bit and then knocked again. He hummed to himself and waited a bit more before the door finally opened up and Sniffles was there, putting on his glasses.

"Ah, Nutty! You made it." he said smiling softly, offering him to come inside by stepping to the side with the door wide open for him.

"Of course! It's not everyday someone wants to hang out with me." he giggled, his words a little slurred due to having the lollipop in his mouth, walking into the male's house.

"Well, you're welcome here anytime, just make sure it's reasonable." he chuckled a little, closing the door after he had walked in, locking it and then heading for the kitchen, "There anything I can get you?"

Nutty shook his head, "Nah." he responded, taking the time to explore the blue-haired male's home.

Nutty blinked and looked at a sphere contained behind a glass door in a large oaken book case. His eyes widened as his mouth opened wide as he stared at the sphere. In Nutty's eyes he saw a large ball of candy. He slowly got closer and closer to the book case, gawking at the sphere. Sniffles walked out and looked at Nutty with a quizzical look.

"Um, Nutty. You all right?" he asked.

It was as if Nutty couldn't hear him, like nothing was there only him and that giant orb of candy that Nutty saw. He kept getting closer and closer, but began to look around quickly as the candy began to travel farther from him, looking at his limbs as it looked like he was getting grabbed by formless black shadows that were pulling him back. In reality, Sniffles was dragging the green-haired male away from the bookcase, realizing what he was staring at and knowing Nutty he just assumed he was thinking it as candy. Nutty was still in a daze, blinking and whining as he was getting farther away from his candy treasure until he finally snapped out of it and looked around as he was now back in reality.

"Geez Nutty! Do you have to go after every single little piece of candy and freak out over it?" Sniffles sighed, looking at him.

"S-Sorry! I can't help it! It's my eye!" he whined, pointing at his oddly coloured and rather lazy like eye.

"I know, I know.." Sniffles said running a hand through his hair before he exhaled a breath and then ruffled his friend's hair.

He pouted slightly, allowing his hair to get ruffled, it was already a mess usually so he didn't really care. Sniffles shook his head and put his arm around the male's shoulder and began to walk him over to his living room where he had his TV and everything entertainment orientated. Sniffles turned the TV on and offered a seat for Nutty, whom tossed himself into the seat and sat upside down, staring at the TV. A commercial popped on, talking about a brand new kind of candy available at the local supermarket, and of course Nutty went berserk after seeing such a commercial.

"I have to get some!" he shouted, fumbling around his seat, trying to sit up right and get out.

"Now, now Nutty, I don't think you need to be buying anymore candy then you have right now.." Sniffles chuckled nervously.

"NO! You don't understand..! It's new, I have to get some to try it! W-What if it's the best candy in the world? I have to get some Sniffles, I have to! I have to...!" he whined and exclaimed, finally managing to get out of the chair he flopped onto.

"But you just got here. Shouldn't you relax a little before we head out? I mean we could hang out here for a bit before we leave. I think it's a little too early for getting candy." Sniffles said crossing his arms a bit as he stood by a the chair Nutty got up from.

"B-But-!" he said in a whiny tone before he would get cut off by Sniffles.

"All right, All right. Tell you what, we hang here for a little while, if you behave yourself we'll go buy as much candy as you want. Sound fair?" Sniffles said smiling.

Sighing and pouting a little, Nutty nodded his head in agreement, getting a satisfied grin out of Sniffles as he left the room for a moment and came back moments later with a small board and black bags. Nutty looked at him questionably as Sniffles cleared the small coffee table he had in the room and set up the board, dumping the contents out onto the board before picking up each piece and placing them on the board like they should be.

"Know how to play Chess Nutty?" he asked with a bright smile.

He blinked and shook his head, taking a seat on the floor in front of the table and chess board, tilting his head. Sniffles smiled and began to explain how the game worked, the rules, the goal, how to play and all that good stuff. Nutty blinked and didn't quite understand the whole concept which made Sniffles smile and laugh and take the extra time to go in depth with his explainations so the more simpler male could understand. The whole process to help Nutty understand probably took about an hour. Nutty began to smile before he understood what the other male was talking about and he was eager to try it on his own to see if he fully understood the material.

It was at that point as Nutty reached for one of the pawn pieces that a large bang, crack, and thud sound happened at the front door, a few men storming into the home in police outfits, each holding a gun and spreading out in the house. One of the officers found the two in the living room.

"Freeze!" he shouted, making the rest of the officers head toward their companion in justice.

"Whoa, what the hell is all this about?" Sniffles exclaimed defensively, feeling horribly violated by this entire act.

"You are being placed under arrest for the murder of Toothy! Hands up!" the officer exclaimed.

"W-What? Murder? T-That's absurd! I have done nothing of the sort!" he shouted back at them, refusing their order to put his hands up.

"We will not hesitate to open fire. Put your fucking hands up now!" the officer said, taking the safety of his gun, the other following suit.

Sniffles would have no choice but to put his hands up and cooperate with the officers. Nutty was in complete shock, his mouth open and tears welling up with tears. His own friend, the only one that was his friend, was a murderer! Was it possible that what Lifty and Shifty said from the very start about him lying about being his friend actually true? Sniffles looked at Nutty and adjusted his glasses with his shoulder before he was cuffed by the officers.

"Nutty, you can't believe them! I didn't kill anyone!" he tried to tell him to make him believe since Nutty was highly gullible, as it has been witnessed before.

Nutty could only shake his head and frown, looking away as Sniffles was taken away, the detained male shouting out for Nutty to believe him. How could this possibly happen? Why would Sniffles ever kill a person? How could he have been so stupid? These were the questions that were racing through Nutty's little sugar coated mind as he whined and whimpered to himself as he was now alone in the home, crying silently to himself.

"Why..? Why did this have to happen to me...? Why can't I have just one person...just one thing that can like me and not lie to me about anything..?" he cried to himself.

He felt a pain, it wasn't physical. It was worse, it was emotional pain. It felt like he was just stabbed in the heart. He had gained a great friend and lost them in the worst way possible through lies and deceit. He was in an unbearable of emotional pain and it seemed his tears would never stop.

Soon enough, Nutty was picking himself up from the floor and looking at the chess board. He couldn't bare to look at the pictures of Sniffles he had in his own home with him surrounded by a happy family. He only shook his head, and wiped his tears away and stared at his feet, managing to get out of the home of the deceitful liar the saddened male thought was his friend. His sadness wasn't only compiled by the loss of Sniffles, but by the loss of Toothy as well. He recalled that Toothy used to be his friend until he and Cuddles began to hang out more so then he.

Nutty walked aimlessly for quite a while before he ended up bumping into another griever. He looked up from staring at his own two feet and saw the blond male, wearing a yellow jacket and orange shorts with bunny slippers and a bunny ear hair band. His eyes were completely drenched in tears as he seemed to be clutching something to his chest. This particular male was Cuddles, the very man who had stolen Toothy's friendship from Nutty. He looked at him, a sad expression on his face still but no tears.

Cuddles sniffed and sobbed silently to himself, his eyes staring down at the place just in front of him. Nutty blinked and sighed softly, gently patting his shoulder and rubbing it a bit to comfort him slightly.

"Y'know... this was the last place we hung out..." Cuddles sobbed silently trying not to choke on his words, "And he said.. he said that today we'd go to the movies to watch the new one that came out..." he said looking over at Nutty, "W-Why did your friend kill mine...?" he said choking up on his sentence.

Nutty bit his lip and pouted, feeling such a deep sadness in himself, "Friend..? What friend? I have no friends Cuddles... Sniffles.. I thought he was my friend.." he explained before he looked down to his own two feet, "I'm sorry..Cuddles.." he muttered under his breath as he began to walk away.

The blond male stood there, watching him walk away before he wiped his tears and tried his best to stop sobbing. Nutty had walked off into the center of town, staring up into the blue sky of the afternoon. What was he going to do? Nutty was on his own again. He was back to being an outcast that no one liked. He felt his eyes getting teary again, forcing him to look down at the ground, his tears falling onto the concrete pavement below. Why was this happening?


	3. Chapter III  Broken Body

Author's Note: Oh dear god, I deeply apologize for disappearing like that. To put it short: Life got severely rough and I had to get my priorities straightened out. Thank you for understanding everyone. If anyone has any concerns and would like to talk to me privately just send me a private message of some sort. I'll reply within 1-2 days tops.

* * *

**Chapter III – Broken Body**

Those once beautiful vibrant colour eyes that used to shine with an absolute brilliance have become withered away to the dark dullness that has seized control over the once lush green shine. Those dull green eyes were staring at the ground just a few inches above where the male who owned these eyes could see the tips of his toes. He wore a simple robe to keep himself covered up as he sat in the large leather chair meant for reading in the study. The male's yellow-green coloured hair was an absolute mess, strands of hair sticking out in every which way.

A single large window, propped wide open, opened the doorway to the world of sunlight into the room he had barricaded himself in darkness. The warm rays of the Winter's morning greeted him happily and warmed his rather pale skin to a comfortable temperature to stop his chills and shivers. His head rose slightly from its downward tilt forcing his eyes to look up and out through the window to the world that awaited him. His eyes were greeted with images of a serene suburban styled housing area with bright coloured homes and lush green and well kempt lawns.

The small waist high white fence that surrounded the home he was in enclosed its lush and well kempt lawn to itself. He stared along the fence until catching the sight of a certain small, red haired female that was crouched down on her knees in a light red sundress decorated with a floral pattern and wearing a reddish-pink sunhat and matching sandals. She could be seen wiping a bit of sweat from her brow as she had sat up a bit to take a small break from tending to the small patch of yellow flowers near the doorway to the small fence.

A small greeting of a friendly smile was directed at the sitting male as she caught the sight of him staring at her before she went back to working with the flowers before it got too cold out to do so. He averted his eyes from the female and continued to gaze around the openness of the neighborhood he lived in until he heard a soft knock against the wooden door that sealed the study securely in which the male turned his attention over to the door and blinked a bit.

The door opened and a rather tall and built man stepped through with a tray of food that would be for the sitting male. The tall man had dark green hair and eyes, a light tan complexion wearing a black army tank top and dark green camo pants with black socks on while dog tags hung around his neck and clanked against each other with his movements as he shifted over to the side of the chair, standing tall and proud above the one sitting.

"Flaky made some breakfast this morning… Didn't think you were awake yet." He said with a slight chuckle, his voice was authoritative, yet friendly, "You should eat something Nutty, haven't seen you eat in at least a few days; you know how worried Flaky can get" he added.

Nutty looked down toward the tall man's feet and sighed a bit, thinking. It has been awhile since Nutty started to live with Flippy and Flaky. The only reason why he even agreed to live with them instead of living on his own was because of Flaky's worrying complex. It was a good decision though, if it weren't for Flippy and Flaky walking in on his suicide attempt in his own home when they went to offer him a gift to help him feel better. Since then he's been in their home, mainly sitting in the study and keeping to himself; barely moving, talking, eating, or even sleeping. Even after all this time has past, Nutty's depression still sunk in deep.

"Today marks three years..." Nutty spoke softly in response to Flippy.

Flippy raised his eyebrow and gently set the tray of food upon Nutty's lap, the contents of the tray consisting of a bowl of strawberry cinnamon oatmeal, a cup of juice, some toast, and a spoon for the oatmeal.

"Yeah it sure has been three years. It's pretty crazy that it's been that long since." He began to say, "But y'know time has moved on with its flow and it's about time you do too. You've been cooped up doing nothing with your life ever since… Well, you know." Flippy said before sighing and sitting on the end table near the window.

"It's not so easy… Losing a friend like that." Nutty said in defense.

"Not so easy? Nutty, I've lost many of my close friends because of the wars we had to fight. I know it isn't easy losing a friend, but we all have to move on at some point." He explained before scratching the back of his head, "Y'know there are other people out there that care about you other then him. Just look at me and Flaky. We took you in with no problem and Flaky is always worrying about you, she's happy just to see that you're not hurting yourself anymore like you used to."

"I guess you're right."

"You know I'm right."

"What if you're wrong?"

"What if I told you I had a letter addressed to you from Cuddles across town?"

Nutty took a hold of the spoon for his meal and slowly began eating as he stared down at the bowl that held his food for him.

"Prove it." He said after a gulp of food went down his throat.

Flippy reached behind him and pulled out a small letter out of his back pants pocket and opened it up, dropping it down onto the tray for the other to see before crossing his arms in minor irritation with Nutty's attitude. Nutty's eye gazed over at the letter and read the handwriting:

"Dear Nutty,

It's been a while since I've seen you around town. I'm pretty worried about you and I hope you're doing alright. I've been meaning to come around and check up on you, but I've been out of town for the past few years on a trip with my parents to get my mind off of things. We spent some time away from the town and went traveling; we just recently came back so I thought maybe we could spend some time together. I was wondering if you'd like to help me clean Toothy's grave on Tuesday. Since I'm sending this on Saturday it probably won't get to you till then so if you do decide to help me out, come to my house around 5pm. You know where I live and just in case you don't I live on the opposite side of town from Flippy's house. The only yellow house on the block. Hope to see you very soon.

-Cuddles"

Nutty continued to eat the entire time he read the small letter. He hummed a bit in thought and swallowed some more of his food as he ate. Flippy looked at him and raised his brow.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Nutty responded.

"You told me to prove it, so I did. Are you going to go or not?" Flippy answered back.

"Hmm. Maybe. I'll have to think about it." He said as he finished up his food and quickly gulping down his juice before standing up with the tray in his hands.

Nutty walked around his seat and started to head out, leaving Flippy alone as he left the study and went into the hall going down its length to the kitchen and setting the dirty dishes into the washer and leaving the tray on the counter once he was done. He turned to look at the clock on the microwave and blinked as he read the time: "12:03." It was still fairly early in the day, he had time to spare for now.

Nutty turned himself around and went back through the same way he walked and instead of heading back into the study he passed it and headed straight down the hall to the guest room that he had the pleasure of staying in for the past three years. He opened the door and stepped inside, swinging the door behind him once he was in leaving it ajar. Nutty opened his robe and let it slide off his slender form, revealing his nudeness into the open air as he wandered over to his dresser and opened up the bottom drawer and picked out a pair of yellowish-green boxers.

He set the boxers on the floor and stepped into them, reaching down and sliding them up his legs to where they needed to be. After that he ended up picking two completely different socks from the same drawer and slipped them onto his feet, wiggling his toes a bit to fix the ends of his socks. After closing the drawer, the male went to his closet and opened it up to be greeted by greens of every shade with shirts on one end of the closet, jackets in the middle, and pants on the opposite end. Nutty picked a light green long sleeved shirt, a darker shaded jacket and very dark green jeans. He put them on accordingly and looked down to the bottom of the closet and pulled on some mismatched shoes to finish his look.

The male strolled over to the mirror just above his dresser and stared at himself. This was the first time in three years he had ever put on his normal attire, he was either wearing the robe or something big to cover himself up in such as a large blanket. He looked up to his hair in his mirror image and ran his hand through it a bit, feeling tons and tons of knots in the mess of green that blanketed his head. The male bit his lip slightly and looked around the dresser for a brush, finding one just to the left of the mirror. Taking the brush he began his work on fixing his hair. It took some time, but once he was finished his hair was as soft and neat as it used to be.

Gazing over at the clock once more he read the time yet again: "1:35." Did he really spend this much time getting himself ready? It never used to take him this long to prepare himself for anything, but then again he was feeling sluggish and unwilling to move due to his lack of happy emotions. Nutty groaned and rubbed his eyes before dragging his hands down his face, making his face look as if it was melting before letting himself go and his face returning to normal.

Nutty shook his head a bit and looked away from the mirror before walking away from his dresser and heading out of the room and heading down the hall and toward the front door, putting his hand on the door knob before getting stopped.

"Hey, where are you heading?" Flippy asked from the living room, staring at Nutty from the sofa.

"Going to Cuddle's house." Nutty responded.

"Be careful, it's pretty cold out. The town hasn't been very safe lately."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Flippy shook his head a bit and sighed a bit before rubbing his forehead as Nutty left the home. Nutty began walking down the path from the front of the house to the fence. Flaky's head rose up to see Nutty walking and she waved a bit, standing up with her hands folded in front of her as Nutty came to a stop near her.

"H-Hey. How're you feeling today Nutty…?" she asked timidly.

"I'm alright I guess." He responded nonchalantly.

"Oh, well I'm glad you're feeling okay at least. Um, are you heading out somewhere?"

He nodded his head, "Mm-hmm. Going across town to see Cuddles."

"Oh! That's good." She smiled warmly before reaching into a small pocket in the side of he dress, pulling out a small rock with a crystalline structure within it, "Do you think you could take this to him for me? I found it a couple days ago and I know how much he likes rocks with these kinds of crystal stuff in it." She added.

Nutty nodded his head again and reached out his hand in which Flaky set the small stone in. Nutty looked down at it before putting it in the pocket of his jacket.

"I'll be sure he gets it." He said before walking to the fence door, unlatching it and opening it before walking onto the sidewalk, closing the fence door and latching it.

"Alright thank you!" she said happily as she watched him walk off toward town.

Now Nutty began his travel. It was going to take some time for him to reach the other side of town, it was quite large after all even though the number of inhabitants was fairly small even though the population was slowly increasing in value. It took half an hour walking just to get to the main district of town! Nutty looked around at the various shops; funny how in three years a place can change so much. There were a ton of new venues and also a ton of old ones. The one that caught Nutty's eye the most was Shifty's and Lifty's ice cream parlor cleverly named "Shift and Lift Taste Robbery" with their sales pitch right in the name sign: "Robbing your taste buds of their senses and cents!"

Nutty stare off at the parlor for a while, thinking back before closing his eyes and shaking his head, walking away with a faster pace. The memory was too painful to even bare, just the sight of that place was enough to make him sick, in fact it did make him feel a bit sick in his stomach. Sighing he continued his way through town, noticing the shift in the sky's colour from the change in time. It was getting close to 5pm already. Soon enough Nutty was in the other side of town, walking up the sidewalk and to the front of the only yellow house that could be seen.

Standing in front of the home he waited for Cuddles. It didn't take long for the short blonde male to come waltzing out of his home, locking it up like he normally would when he left, and greet Nutty with a wave as he walked up to him wearing a yellow hoodie with cream colour shorts and yellow tennis shoes and socks.

"Hey! You decided to come, huh?" he said smiling, "Glad to see you're still around."

"Yeah. You seem to be doing well for yourself." Nutty answered back.

"I've been alright, better then before that's for sure. You seem to be doing well for yourself too." He responded.

"Ah, yeah well.. I guess you'd be right." He reluctantly said after a brief pause in conversation.

"Well, let's get going. It'll be dark soon."

Nodding his head in response, Nutty followed the lead of Cuddles whom began walking down the sidewalk to the cemetery. On their way there Cuddles talked about his trips he took with his parents as Nutty listened. The two of them past by a large public park and the post office before coming up to the large metal gates of the towns memorial cemetery, the one and only. Nutty blinked and went up to the gate, opening it up and heading inside without even realizing that Cuddles was still standing at the gate, frozen in place. It would seem Cuddles was mentally preparing himself, taking a few deep breaths as he watched Nutty walking the dirt path to find Toothy's grave, which didn't take him long at all to really find.

Nutty began to think to himself as he was walking alone, finally realizing he was by himself: '_How come he gets to be so happy? Why can't I be happy like that?'_ he asked himself in his head.

'_He's not broken like I am and he lost his best friend just like me! How come he can be so happy and I can't be? Why am I the one that's so broken!'_ he shouted in his mind as he gritted his teeth together, '_It isn't fair that I'm broken and he's not! Damn that Cuddles, thinking he can just be happy no matter what and not even realize others can't be that happy.'_

Nutty stood in front of Toothy's grave, staring down at it as he continued his inner ranting. He was so focused on his own ranting within his head, he didn't even hear Cuddles walk up next to him and stand there silently until he spoke, breaking Nutty out of his enraged trance, making him jump from the sudden sound of his voice.

"You know today marks three years, right?" Cuddles said sadly, a small frown planting on his face.

Nutty looked at him and raised his eye brow a bit, "Yeah, I know." He said a little irritated and puzzled from Cuddles now sad expression, but then again he was standing in front of the grave of his best friend so it was to be expected.

"I wish it never happened… He did nothing to be preyed upon like that."

"We both wish it never happened… We both lost our best friends."

"You can still get yours back though. I can't. My best friend is gone forever." Cuddles replied, his voice quivering a bit.

Nutty decided to keep quiet as Cuddles knelt down and began dusting leaves off the grave to keep himself from spilling any tears, but it was to no avail.

"N-Nutty… Do me a favor and get me a couple of flowers from that patch by the giant oak. Please…" he asked as he wiped his eyes with his sleeves, feeling more tears welling up in his eyes and he silently sobbed.

Nutty stared down at him and bit his lip slightly, feeling absolutely horrible for what he was thinking about him as he was standing there before Cuddles ever came up to him. He turned away from the crying male and looked over at the big oak, walking over to it and staring at the patch of purple and white flowers that decorated the base of the tree trunk. How could he be so ignorant and arrogant? Thinking Cuddles had gotten over the tragedy and was back to being his same old self? Cuddles was just as broken as Nutty was since then, the only difference between the two of them was that Cuddles made the attempt to hide it all with fake happiness and smiles while Nutty made no attempt to hide his bruised and battered body.

Nutty leaned down, picking out an even amount of purple and white flowers to make a small bouquet with. While he was busy with preparing the little bouquet, footsteps traveled up behind him, crumpling the grass and crunching the dead leaves on the ground. Nutty's one track mind focused on the flowers and excluded all noise and distractions until he was done. At that moment he began hearing the footsteps. They were faint in the distance so he chose to ignore them, thinking it was just Cuddles walking to get something.

He gazed up at the sky, seeing the mixtures of purples and reds that painting the once blue canvas thanks to the artistic style-lings of the setting sun. He admired the sight for a bit and placed a single hand in his jacket pocket, flowers held in the other, and he felt the small stone he was given by Flaky to give to Cuddles. As Nutty realized he didn't give him the stone yet, he heard the footsteps behind him get louder and then coming to a halt, thinking it was Cuddles he turned around. His head was down, staring at his pocket as he tried to pull out the rock.

"Hey Cuddles, I got some of the flowers you wanted. Also Flaky wanted you to have-" he stopped dead in his sentence.

As he looked up he saw a familiar male, wearing blue trimmed glasses, a light blue shirt with a brown jacket and dress like pants and black dress like shoes. His bright blue eyes and his noticeable blue hair gave away his identity fairly easily.

"It's been awhile… Hasn't it Nutty?" the blue-haired male said softly, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Nutty was speechless, no words came to his mouth as the two of them stared at each other after their three years of being separated. Three years of separation have made three people suffer immensely. A reunion that should be filled with happiness is filled with nothing but a sadness and anger that tugs at the hearts of the ones who've lost their friends. Why was this happening here and now?


	4. Chapter IV Healing

**Chapter IV – Healing**

It felt as if all of time slowed down and came to a complete halt. Nutty's heart skipped a beat upon seeing Sniffles, his voice completely gone. All of his breathing stopped and it even felt as if his heart stopped as well. The shock was slowly shutting the boy down until nothing but blackness overcame him as his body fell backwards and landed with a sickening thud. Nutty now found himself in a void, standing alone. There was no sound, no light, nothing. Complete and utter blackness surrounded the lone male.

Confused he looked around the veil of darkness, trying to figure out where he was and just what was going on. He looked down to his feet and the black ground seemed to ripple similarly to water as he shifted his feet slightly. Nutty's confusion only grew as he began to walk, the sound of his footsteps sounded like he was stepping on cobblestone yet there was water there, rippling with each step. To further his confusion, his own footsteps echoed and with each passing step the echoes grew in volume.

"H-Hello?" he called out, his voice echoing throughout the darkness.

No response came to him. He was utterly alone in the shrouding blackness that seemed to consume everything in his sight. Sighing, he sat down on the watery ground and brought his knees to his chest, hugging them and resting his chin between his knees. He sat there, eyes glancing around the nothingness as if searching for a possible escape. But of course, there was none. It felt like an eternity, sitting there with nothing to do but wait in this limbo.

Just as Nutty was losing hope in every finding himself in his familiar surroundings, a burst of light blinded him and caused a violent groan to escape his throat. Eyes flickered opened, the male found himself in a medical bed with the sun shining in through the window next to the bed. Confused he looked around and blinked, weakly turning his head and wincing from the terrible amount of pain he felt.

"Ah, I see that you're coming to." A kind voice said aloud, "You gave us quite the scare, never seen a concussion that bad in a long while." The voice went on to say.

"W-Where am I?" Nutty muttered weakly, trying to muster the strength and pain tolerance to turn his head to see who the phantom voice belonged to.

Footsteps made their way to the bed and then around to the front, a doctor stood wearing regular medical attire and held a clip board, a gentle smile on her face. Short curly lavender hair adored the woman's scalp; light purple eyes stared at the male in the bed.

"You're in the town's hospital. You took quite the hit to the head when you fell over. Hit the back of your head straight onto a great oak. You hit it with enough force to knock a loose branch down and that seemed to knock you out for about five days." She explained.

Five days? Could if of been that long? Nutty thought and looked at the woman, groaning lightly as he tried to sit up. The woman walked over to his side and shook her head, placing a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Ah, ah. Don't you be moving too much now. You just came to after five days, you're going to have to rest for a little longer before you're well enough to move on your own." She said with a kind smile.

With a small and light sigh, the yellow-green haired male closed his eyes and shifted his legs a bit to stretch them out. He felt absolutely terrible. Every muscle fiber in his body was completely sore and felt as weak as could be and his head felt like it was cracking into two. The overwhelming pain he felt in his head forced small whiny groans from the male every now and again.

The woman checked her watch and blinked a bit, "Oh looks like visiting hours start in a couple of minutes. I'll go see if there's anyone here for you right now, I know for a fact they'd be relieved to hear you're finally up." She said as she began walking around the bed to head out of the room.

Nutty laid there in the bed, staring up at the porcelain white ceiling that veiled the room from the outside elements with the help of the walls. Sighing a bit, he closed his eyes for a moment before he heard a pair of voices conversing and traveling toward his room. Immediately he opened his eyes and finally managed to turn his head toward the door despite the horrible amount of pain it gave him.

The same woman walked in with a gentle smile, escorting in a blue haired male wearing glasses, a simple white shirt and some black jeans. The male made his way over to Nutty and sat himself down in the visitor's chair. The woman nodded her head and casually walked out to attend to more patients, leaving the two men alone in the room together.

"How's your head?" Sniffles asked with a slight smile.

"Hurts…A lot." Nutty muttered.

"Hm, I see. I didn't think you'd faint from seeing me."

"I didn't think I'd see you out of jail…"

"Well, you got me there. I didn't think I was going to be let out at all, but they found something that got me off the hook."

"What's that?"

"They found a hair belonging to the real culprit. Well I really should be saying culprits."

"I don't…understand." Nutty whispered.

"The two that really did the murder were Lifty and Shifty. They framed me for whatever reason and they're on the run now since they've been found out. Cops caught up to them one time to confront them and take them in, but they managed to get away and out of sight. I don't even think they're in town anymore."

"W-What?" Nutty muttered, "Those no g-good sons of bi-"

"Now, now Nutty. There's no need for foul language." Sniffles laughed a bit, cutting the other male off before he had the chance to finish his statement.

"I'm out and innocent, Cuddles knows the information that needs to be known and so does the rest of the town. Life can go back to normal." Sniffles began to say, "If you ask me this town is better off without those criminals. All they did was rob everyone at any given time. Damn kleptomaniacs."

"But they're shop… Who runs… the parlor?" Nutty asked curiously.

"Lumpy does now, which seems like a horrible idea but he's got a good staff working there now. I hear Giggles and Petunia are servers there now."

The two fell silent for a while as Nutty sighed a bit. Sniffles smiled and adjusted his glasses before putting his hand on Nutty's arm and gently rubbed it in a comforting manner.

"Tell you what Nutty, when you get released from the hospital's care, why don't you and me head down to the parlor and get some ice cream for the two of us? Then after we can go get you some candy. Bet you been running low now for a while." He offered.

Nutty couldn't help but smile at the other's offer. Things were really going back to normal. It was like his father and many others always told him "Good things are flying high in the sky, so keep your head high and good things are bound to gravitate around you." He nodded his head to the man's offer and couldn't stop smiling.

The two men stood there in silence for short intervals as they conversed until visitor's hours were over. Once Nutty was left alone it was already nightfall and all was still. He would end up going to sleep with a smile on his face and wake up with the same smile. Days would pass with the same regular routine, morning examinations from the medical staff, meals came in at the same times everyday, and many people concerned with Nutty would visit during the rightful hours. Sniffles was one of the frequent visitors that came each day and stayed until he was practically forced to leave.

Everyday made Nutty smile. His mangled and broken mind, heart, and body were slowly healing with each passing second and one thing stood in his mind: Sniffle's offer. Every time he thought about it, it gave him hope and happiness. His excitement only grew day by day as his recovery went on and on. After about a week and a half Nutty was well enough to be released. It was a Wednesday when he got released, but he chose to stay in for visiting hours one last time.

Like always Sniffles came in first at the very starting time for visiting hours and came straight in with a smile on his face, looking at Nutty. Soon his expression changed from happy to confused as he saw that Nutty was completely covered from his feet up to his neck compared to the usual covering up to his stomach.

"Uhh.. Why are you all covered up?" he asked as he neared the bed, head tilted a bit.

Nutty giggled, only to throw his covers off of himself to reveal he was fully dressed in a light green shirt with a cyan coloured jacket, dark green jeans and dark and light green striped shoes.

"Surprise!" he exclaimed as he jumped out of bed happily and held his hands behind his back, "They're letting me out today, so I decided to wait for you here and surprise you with the good news!"

Sniffles blinked and laughed a bit, only to cross his arms over his chest and shake his head, ruffling his usual white shirt, "You silly boy. Well I better make good on that offer, huh?"

Nodding his head, the yellow-green haired male giggled and semi-ran over to the door, turning around quickly to see the other walking behind him with a smile. The two of them traveled through the hospital out into the streets of their little town. Sniffles put his hands in his brown pants pockets, as Nutty practically skipped around happily as Sniffles walked behind.

Nutty stopped ever so often to look back at Sniffles, "C'mon slow poke! If we don't hurry we might miss out on all the good ice cream flavors!"

"Relax Nutty, they'll replace the flavors." Sniffles responded calmly.

Huffing, Nutty crossed his arms and pouted before perking up quickly with glee, "Betcha I can beat you there in a race!"

"What? Are you kidding me Nutty?"

"No, of course not! You're just scared that I'll win."

"Really now? Heh, well then you're on squirrel!"

With that Sniffles was off, running past Nutty as the two began racing toward the ice cream parlor. For a while the two were neck and neck until Sniffles was growing tired. Nutty was still bursting with energy. Nutty won by an arms length, the both of them panting quite a bit as they reached the parlor. Sniffles hunched over a bit, hands on his knees as he tried to regain his breath and Nutty leaned against the wall of the establishment. After the two recovered their lost breaths, they looked at each other and laughed a bit.

"Ah, well seems like you won that bet squirrel boy." Sniffles said as he placed his hands on his hips.

"You got that right nothing is faster then a squirrel when it comes to racing anteater." Nutty giggled before propping himself up off the wall and went to the double doors.

A bell rung once the double doors opened and the two males were greeted joyfully by Lumpy who was behind the counter, waving like a complete idiot.

"Hi guys! We're having a two for one special today. Interested?" he said with his usual goofy smile on his face.

Sniffles shrugged his shoulders while Nutty happily exclaimed "Yes, yes!" and ran on over to the front counter to check out the various flavors they had. Sniffles lingered behind and looked at Nutty, smiling softly as he saw how happy the other was. The same old hyper-active, crazy, child-like squirrel he had missed seeing so much after three years of imprisonment. For some reason it made his heart and stomach flutter.

Nutty gazed at all the flavors before picking out the various ones he wanted to have mixed together for his own personal taste while Sniffles finally walked over to make his own selection. After the two of them were done ordering they headed over to the exact same table they sat at the first time they were ever here together at the same time when Lifty and Shifty ran shop. Almost the exact same amount of people were in the shop again this day, some new faces and some familiar faces like Pop taking Cub for a father-son ice cream day.

"Feels like Deja-vu." Sniffles said as he looked around the parlor.

"Whaddaya mean?" Nutty asked.

"Hm? Oh nothing, just talking out loud. That was meant to stay in my head, I'm sorry."

Nutty giggled, "You tend to do that a lot, huh?"

"Do what a lot? Say things out loud when I think?"

"Yeah."

"Seems like it. You know I never really noticed it before."

"Really? I thought you would have noticed it a long time ago."

"Why's that?"

"You're always talking out loud to yourself."

"I am?"

"Yeah!" Nutty responded.

Sniffles thought about what the other had said for a moment and wondered how long he had been doing that for. Days? Weeks? Months? Years? His entire life? Who knew? Certainly not Sniffles.

"Huh. I guess you'd know better then I would seeing as I had no idea I was or rather had been doing that." He finally responded after giving it thought.

The two of them continued to talk, laughing at funny comments that were made by each other as they waited for their ice creams to be served. Soon enough a happy, blue-long haired woman came by wearing a light blue servers outfit, holding a serving tray with two bowls of ice cream on it walked up to the table and smiled warmly. She set down the two bowls to their respectful recipients before leaving.

"Enjoy!" she said as she walked away.

Sniffles and Nutty took up their spoons and lightly tapped them together in mid-air, almost like a high-five for spoons before digging into their ice creams and enjoying their flavors. Nutty of course was enjoying the ice cream far more then Sniffles, but then again it was in his nature to. Nutty giggled and laugh as he ate the sugary dairy product and finished it faster then he had expected, giving himself a horrible brain freeze.

"Ooohh…" he groaned as Sniffles laughed at him a bit.

"Take it easy now, it's not like that ice cream was going to be going anywhere other then your mouth and stomach." Sniffles responded.

Nutty rubbed his temples and shook his head, biting his lower lip as the freezing sensation continued until slowly subsiding. Sniffles picked up a napkin and reached over, wiping the other male's mouth clean of the mess he had after his brain freeze was over. Nutty blinked as his cheeks began to feel warm and started to turn a light pink colour. Did he really just do that or was this just all in his head?

Crumpling up the napkin after he was done wiping the other male's mouth, he smiled and set it aside as he continued to eat his ice cream, taking small scoops with his spoon in order to savor every bit of the creamy dessert. Nutty gulped a bit and looked to the side, trying to divert his attention away from the blue-haired male as he began thinking.

_"W-What in the world was that? F-Friends don't u-usually do that to friends unless t-they have some sort of feelings for them…Right? C'mon Nutty, you're in over your head! There's no way Sniffles could like you more then a friend, just take it easy…He was just being nice. Yeah that's it! He was just helping out a friend." _The male monologued in his head.

At the same time Sniffles was also thinking in his head and since he was stuffing his mouth full of ice cream ever so often it prevented him from saying his thought aloud like he usually would do.

_"Geez Sniffles! The hell was all that? Have you finally cracked a gasket? That was a completely random and strange thing to do. And to a friend, a friend that is the same gender as you are no less! Am I really…? No, there's no way. Perhaps I'm just overreacting and taking things out of proportion. If that is so…Then what is this sensation I keep feeling when I'm around him? Every visit to the hospital…It seemed to grow more and more. And the more I'm around him it seems to get stronger; am I really developing feelings for him? Oh bother, what am I to do?"_ he thought before sighing lightly.

Nutty heard his sigh and looked at him a bit, the light blush that had stained his face before already gone, "Something the matter?"

Shaking his head, Sniffles stood quiet and proceeded to finish his ice cream before smiling at the other, "I was just…Thinking about something. No need to worry." He said reassuringly.

Soon Nutty waved for Petunia to come over and take their bowls away and she did gladly. Sniffles paid and the two of them got up from their seats and proceeded to head out the parlor. Lumpy waved at them and said good-bye and the two males did the same, smiling. Once the two left they ended up roaming around town looking at various window displays in the shopping district.

Hours passed and it got closer and closer to dark as the two spent more of the day together doing nothing but roaming around and talking to each other about what has been going on in town as of late. The more time the two spent together the more apparent and clear things started to seem for Sniffles. A few more hours passed and it was now night time. The stars dotted the sky like acne on skin and the two males were staring up at the dotted sky from a park bench next to a light post that illuminated the area they sat in.

Sniffles looked at Nutty and admired him for a moment before breaking the peaceful silence with his calm voice.

"Nutty…I've been thinking about this a lot lately, especially today."

"Mm?" Nutty hummed as he looked at the other and blinked a bit.

"Well…I feel odd saying this, but it seems like it would be the right thing to say and you have the right to know of course."

"Uh, alright. Lemme hear it then."

"Since we've been spending all this time together I've been feeling this weird fluttering feeling inside myself for a while. Now I have no doubt in my mind what these fluttering feelings are. Nutty, these feelings…I only get them around you and since these fluttering feelings are usually associated with the feelings of love I've concluded that I developed feelings for you. Feelings that go beyond being friends. I can't help my emotions and I have the feeling that perhaps you might be feeling the same way since you were blushing at the parlor earlier today when I wiped your mouth clean."

Nutty's face lit up light a Christmas light as he stammered and stuttered, "Y-you s-sa-saw that?"

"Yes I did. That's not the point here though. Nutty, I've developed feelings for you and I'd like them to expand further…With you. I supposed what I'm trying to say here is…Um well…W-Would you like to become my special one?" Sniffles asked, his cheeks turning a bit red.

"Y-Ye-Y-Yes. I-I would l-like that…A lot."

The two looked at each other and Sniffle's took a hold of Nutty's hand. The two gulped a bit before Sniffles leaned in slowly. Nutty's face reddened by the second. Soon, Sniffles and Nutty's lips gently touched each others in a soft, shy kiss. Sharing their first kiss together, the two were now joined by their feelings as a newborn couple.


End file.
